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Practice Areas
Employment
Environmental
Litigation
Experience
Stephen practices with the firm's environmental and employment groups. He has more than 30 years of experience in complex and multiparty litigation and has handled class action matters as both defense and class counsel.
Environmental Experience
Stephen's experience in environmental matters includes:
Cost recovery and enforcement litigation respecting industrial plants, agricultural chemical distributors and formulators, bulk storage facilities, and transmission pipeline releases under CERCLA, RCRA and HSAA, including cost recovery against the United States government for wartime chemical plants
Toxic tort and stigma damage litigation based on exposures to contaminated sites
Contaminated site investigation, cleanup, closure and health risk management
Community relations for contaminated sites and community relocation
Public agency review of environmental permitting
Underground Storage Tank Fund claims and other claims related to chemical handling and manufacturing, petroleum refining and abandoned tank sites.
Contract and permit matters related to landfill operation, expansion, long-term closure costs and transfer of ownership
County solid waste management planning and waste importation agreements
Development of waste recycling programs and household hazardous waste programs
Operating agreements, agency approvals and waste stream guarantees in connection with a proposed waste-to-energy project
Brownfields redevelopment and public funding
Occupational safety regulation and enforcement in the construction, demolition, waste disposal, dry cleaning and manufacturing industries
The contaminated sites where Stephen has served as litigation or environmental counsel, or both, include among others:
Brown & Bryant (Arvin Plant), Arvin, California, EPA ID# CAD052384021 (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, etc. v. Brown & Bryant, Inc.), representing The Dow Chemical Company
Brown & Bryant (Shafter Site), Shafter, California, EPA ID# CAD009531823 (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, etc. v. Brown & Bryant, Inc.), representing The Dow Chemical Company
Del Amo Site, Torrance, California, EPA ID# CAD029544731 (Cadillac Fairview, California, Inc. v. The Dow Chemical Company, et al., (Pit Site); Shell Oil Company v. United States (Plant Site); Amcena Properties v. Shell Oil Company, et al. (Coca-Cola Bottling Company); and related cases), representing The Dow Chemical Company
Del Monte/Oahu Plantation (Kunia Plantation), Hawaii, EPA ID # HID980637631, representing The Dow Chemical Company
Industrial Waste Processing, Fresno, California, EPA ID# CAD980736284 and Pinedale Groundwater Site, Fresno, California
(Calcot, Ltd. v. Vendo, et al.), representing The Dow Chemical Company
La Mirada Products, La Mirada, California (La Mirada Products v. The Dow Chemical Company), representing The Dow Chemical Company
Santa Fe Springs Oilfield, Santa Fe Springs, California (Beaumon Trust, et al. v. The Dow Chemical Company, et al.), representing The Dow Chemical Company
United Heckathorn Company, Richmond, California, EPA ID # CAD981436363 (Levin Metals Corp. v. Parr-Richmond Terminal Company, et al.), representing The Dow Chemical Company
Napa Bulk Terminal (Bay Cities Oil Marketers v. Commercial, Electrical, and Mechanical Maintenance Company, et al.), representing Chevron Products Company
Port of Oakland, Berths 23 and 24 (Port of Oakland v. ExxonMobil Oil Corporation), representing the Port of Oakland
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners aviation fuel pipeline spill, February 2005, representing the Port of Oakland
Hookston Station, Pleasant Hill, California (Block, et al. v. Helix, et al. and Huddleston, et al. v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, et al.), representing Hookston Station property owners
Former Kaiser Marquardt aerospace plant, 56 acres at Van Nuys Airport (Kaiser Marquardt, Inc. v. The Marquardt Company), representing Kaiser Marquardt, Inc.
Employment Experience
Stephen's employment, civil rights and employee benefits law experience includes work with employers, public entities and labor unions in a variety of administrative and litigation matters. He handles matters under ERISA, Title VII, ADEA, Americans With Disabilities Act, Executive Order 11246, OSHA, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and corresponding state legislation, as well as proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, the California Labor Commissioner, and in contract arbitrations and negotiations. He has extensive collective bargaining experience. From 1976 through 1980, Stephen was the Northern California Home Builders Conference member of the standing Board of Adjustment under the Carpenters 46 Northern California Counties master residential construction agreement.
He has represented numerous construction industry pension, health and apprenticeship trust funds with assets of $500 million in matters arising under ERISA, including plan structure, benefit improvements, withdrawal liability, COBRA and HIPAA implementation, and fiduciary liability.
Significant Appellate Decisions
Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Company, 487 U.S. 312, 108 S. Ct. 2405, 101 L.Ed.2d (1988) – Case specified that named plaintiffs in class action appeals must meet the same procedural standards as individual plaintiffs.
Music v. Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust Fund, 712 F.2d 413 (9th Cir. 1983) – Determined the standard for fiduciary liability in cases involving retroactive pension plan modifications under ERISA and the LMRA, leading to the recovery of benefits exceeding $10 million for a class of retired, disabled Teamsters.
Cadillac Fairview v. The Dow Chemical Company, et al., 41 F.3d 562 (9th Cir. 1994) – Determined the Ninth Circuit standard for "arranger for treatment" liability for government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) war plants under CERCLA.
Education
University of California, San Francisco, Hastings College of the Law; J.D. (1975)
Stanford University; B.A., with distinction (1969)
United States Navy Submarine School, Groton, CT; graduate (1969) |
